740.0011 European War 1939/13633: Telegram
The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:30 p.m.]
716. A mutual friend who has just seen General Antonescu tells me the following: (1) The General has been confronted with too much evidence of Acting Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu’s double dealings not to have had his confidence in him seriously impaired with possible later consequences. (2) The Hungarian Government was never asked to participate in the war on Russia and the Hungarian Army was never wanted by the Germans. That is what the General is being told. (3) General Antonescu has no intention of going further beyond the Dniester than a reasonable distance—possibly to the Bug River—calculated to make Rumania safe in the future from such recurrent Russian molestation as it has suffered in the past. (4) Relations between the Rumanian and German forces are none too cordial and the Germans are grabbing all loot for themselves even to the crops in Bessarabia. (5) The General is sick at heart over the wholesale massacres of the Jews93 which he has tried his utmost to stop. It is claimed that the Germans have usually set the pace. There were positively cases however where Jews fired on troops. (6) The General says that the Germans sorely miscalculated Russian military strength and cohesion—Ribbentrop is being blamed for this and is on his way out.